Crocs Socks and Emcee Hammer
Crocs Socks and Emcee Hammer
Your daily digest of youth culture
Crocs launched socks, meet the new Gawker, meet the next need-to-know boy band, brands are frantically dropping DaBaby, Young Thug intends to become the world’s richest black man, and…
INFLUENCER MARKETING GETS A GEN-Z UPGRADE WITH EMCEE LAUNCH
The startup is something of an alternative to LikeToKnowIt, but for smaller indie brands like Lisa Says Gah — and, more crucially — aimed at a younger audience. The founder says they “believe that if you have Gen Z, anybody would come, but if you go for a bit older demographic, you would probably lose Gen Z.” On a similar note… glossy
*Now would be a good time to apologize for the terrible pun in the subject line
THE BENEFITS AND PITFALLS OF USING YOUNGER MODELS TO TARGET GEN-Z CUSTOMERS
Brands like Journelle and Parade have had massive success building Gen Z fans by using models that look like them (young, diverse) — but it’s not that simple. Gucci and Saint Laurent, meanwhile, have pledged to stop using models under 18, “citing the impact that intense pressure to be thin and beautiful can have on them.” (Using only young models also, obviously, alienates other generations, which I guess isn’t an issue for some brands but definitely should be.) glossy
HOW LIVESTREAM SHOPPING MARKETPLACES ARE TRYING TO BECOME MAINSTREAM
I’ve been thinking about it as an arms race — between the ShopShops, the PopShop Lives, the Ntwrks of the world — for users, and maybe it is, but I like the optimism of this perspective: “I think there is more than enough opportunity to build massive standalone public companies in this space,” said Rebecca Kaden, a managing partner at venture capital firm Union Square Ventures (an investor in ShopShops). modernretail
AMERICAN EAGLE GOES BACK TO SCHOOL WITH SNAPCHAT
They’re teaming up with Bitmoji and Snapchat, the latter of which will allow “shoppers to browse the full AE assortment by way of ‘Dress Yourself’ augmented reality.” Basically, people can take a photo of themselves and virtually try on the AE collection. Or they could, you know, go to the mall. wwd
HOW THE OLYMPICS’ THIRST FOR YOUTH SUBCULTURE STEAMROLLS THE SPORTS WE LOVE
Skateboarding, surfing, climbing, parkour, and breakdancing were gaining power in their own right—but once the IOC got involved, everything got very complicated. vice // Related: All about the Tokyo Olympics’ teen medalists so far. wwd (Have you watched? I have not watched.)
One last thought:
